Ванчай: История и современность района Гонконга

Area of Hong Kong Island

Wan Chai is situated at the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to the south. The area north of Gloucester Road is often referred to as Wan Chai North. Wan Chai is one of the busiest commercial areas in Hong Kong with offices of many small and medium sized companies. Wan Chai North features office towers, parks, hotels and an international conference and exhibition centre. As one of the first areas developed in Hong Kong, the locale is densely populated yet with noticeable residential zones facing urban decay. Arousing considerable public concern, the government has undertaken several urban renewal projects in recent years. There are various landmarks and skyscrapers within the area, most notably the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), Central Plaza and Hopewell Centre.

Wan Chai originally began as Ha Wan , literally meaning "a bottom ring" or "lower circuit". As one of the earliest developed areas in Hong Kong along the Victoria Harbour, Central ("centre ring" in Chinese), Sheung Wan ("upper ring"), Sai Wan ("western ring") and Wan Chai are collectively known as the four rings by the locals. Wan Chai literally means "a cove" in Cantonese from the shape of its coastal line, however, due to drastic city development and continual land reclamation, the area is no longer a cove.

Wan Chai was the first home to the many Chinese villagers living along the undisturbed coastlines in proximity to Hung Shing Temple. Most of them were fishermen, who worked around the area near Hung Shing Temple overlooking the entire harbour. Hung Shing Ye, the God of the Sea, was one of the deities worshiped by the locals.

With the growth of the British Hong Kong administration, centred in old Victoria (modern Central), Wan Chai attracted those on the fringes of society, such as "coolie" workers, who came to live on Queen's Road East. A focal point of development at that time was Spring Gardens, a red light zone. By the 1850s, the area was already becoming a Chinese residential area. One of the first water front hospitals was the Seaman's Hospital, built in 1843, which was funded by the British merchant group Jardine's. It was then sold to the British Royal Navy in 1873 and subsequently redeveloped into the Royal Naval Hospital. After the Second World War, the hospital was revitalised as the Ruttonjee Hospital and became one of the main public hospitals in Hong Kong. The district was home to several well known schools. One of these schools was established by the famous traditional teacher, Mo Dunmei Started as a shushu in 1919, the school was renamed Dunmei School in 1934 after him. This church building became the landmark of the district. In 1998, this building was demolished and replaced by a 23 storey building.

During the Japanese occupation in the early 1940s, many bombardments took place in Wan Chai. There were abundant incidences of cannibalism, starvation, torture and abuses of the local population by the Japanese soldiers, including the illegal use of child labour. Senior residents could recall vividly how they survived the hardships: this oral history became an important, first hand source of the harsh living conditions in Hong Kong under the Japanese period. The Dunmei school was closed during the Japanese occupation period. After the war, the school continued to provide Chinese education for children from families of higher income. Prostitution has been one of the oldest occupations in Wan Chai. There are numerous historical accounts of women trading sex for western merchandise, especially with sailors from trading ships visiting this area. In the 1960s, Wan Chai became legendary for its exotic night life, especially for the US servicemen resting there during the Vietnam War.

Wan Chai's HKCEC has been home to major political and economic events. It was the site of the Hong Kong handover ceremony in 1997, in which the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, formally concluded the British chapter and transferred Hong Kong to China. The WTO Ministerial Conference in 2005 was also one of the largest international events hosted in Hong Kong, with delegates from 148 countries participating. In May 2009, 300 guests and staff members at the Metropark Hotel in Wan Chai were quarantined, suspected of being infected or in contact with the H1N1 virus during the global outbreak of swine flu. A 25 year old Mexican man who had stayed at the hotel was later found to have caught the viral infection. He had traveled to Hong Kong from Mexico via Shanghai.

Wan Chai's coastal line has been extended outward after a series of land reclamation schemes. Early in 1841, the coastline was located at Queen's Road East (the area of Spring Gardens and Ship Street). The first reclamation took place and new land was sold to Minister of Foreign Affairs of the British Colony. The project was privately funded and the government did not take part. Soon after, in 1858, the Minister and his salesmen sold the land back to the Chinese after Sir Robert Brown Black was named President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. The next reclamation project in Wan Chai was the Praya East Reclamation Scheme. The coastline was extended to today's Gloucester Road. The reclamation after World War II from 1965 to 1972 pushed the coastline further out to the areas around Convention Avenue and the Wan Chai Pier. The 1990s Wan Chai Development project added additional land, on which the current HKCEC stands today.

Wan Chai is a major hub of foreign and Chinese cultural institutions in Hong Kong. It is home to the French Alliance Francaise, German Goethe Institut and the British Council (until 2001). Near the waterfront, there are the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Hong Kong Arts Centre, two of the most popular venues for theatrical and cultural performances in Hong Kong. The Academy for Performing Arts is a higher education institution that trains musicians, performers, actors and dancers, as well as a public venue for drama, concerts, dance, and musicals productions. Every year the academy produces a number of Broadway musicals, including Singin' in the Rain, Saturday Night Fever, and Annie. The Arts Centre, just opposite to the academy, houses a studio theatre, art galleries, rehearsal rooms, the Goethe Institut and a restaurant overlooking the Victoria Harbour. The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), a HK$4.8 billion convention centre with an extension completed in 1997, covers over 16 acres (65,000 m2) of newly reclaimed land that added an extra 38,000 m2 of functional space to the existing convention centre. It remains a venue for international trade fairs, some of which are among the biggest in the world: the annual Hong Kong Book Fair in July, food fair and festival, technology exhibitions, and cosplay competitions.

Cha chaan teng are local styled fast food restaurants, and Chinese pastry. Many of the restaurants can be found all along Jaffe Road. Numerous tea shops offer cheap Chinese herbal tea, like leong cha (lit. cool tea) and 24 mei. Dai pai dong, open air restaurants in a big tent, is another classic restaurant type that appeared in Wan Chai. Despite the often unclean and uncomfortable eating conditions, many people are attracted to the freshly made steamed rice roll, congee and chow mein early in the morning. Due to urban renewal projects in recent years, most of these restaurants are fading away. Yum Cha, is the name associated with having dim sum, e. g. Fook Lam Moon restaurant. People usually have "one bowl with two pieces" (, meaning a cup of tea with two dim sums) for breakfast. There were three old styled dims restaurants remaining in Wan Chai, namely Lung Mun, Lung To, and Lung Tuen. Lung Mun, the last of the trio, closed on 30 November 2009. A number of Buddhist cuisine restaurants are also available in the area. The 1980s also saw an expansion of Western cuisine restaurants in Wan Chai. Nowadays, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Indian restaurants are all very common. There are also many fast food restaurants serving Cantonese and other Chinese dishes, including the franchised Maxim's and Café de Coral. Jaffe Road and Lockhart Road are famous for pubs.

The area towards the western end of Lockhart Road, including a small part of the parallel Jaffe Road, is one of Hong Kong island's two main bar districts (the other being the more upmarket Lan Kwai Fong in Central). Once considered primarily as a red light district, this area is now more diverse with bars, pubs, restaurants and discos. A number of the raunchier bars still remain, however, their doorways festooned with women from Thailand and the Philippines. The famous novel and film The World of Suzie Wong sets many scenes in this area. The bar district has been popular with visiting sailors and navies, when Fenwick Pier, west of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, was in use as a military pier.

Southorn Playground on Johnston Road (the tram line) is a meeting place for the locals in Wan Chai, particularly the senior residents. During the prime years of the British colonial administration, coolie workers would convene at the playground in the morning to await employment opportunities. In the evening, the playground became an open air pitch where people sold food, performed magic and did kung fu. Some of those trademark activities still exist through today: senior citizens socialise and play Chinese chess, young people at school play football and basketball, ad hoc street basketball games that attract flocks of spectators and players. Occasionally, the entire playground is used for carnival fairs, three player drill basketball contests and hip hop dance competitions.

Wan Chai's places of worship represent Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Christianity, Mormonism, Sikhism, and Islam. Despite the wide variety, many religious structures are located in close proximity to each other. Hung Shing Temple, for example, is a typically Taoist temple. Inside, there are Buddhist Kwun Yum chapels next to the main altar. People coming to worship Hung Shing Ye could also burn joss sticks to Kwun Yum as well. Villain hitting is another blended ceremony, combining in different proportions Confucianism, Taoism, and folk religion. Some old female "psychics" perform this ancient ceremony under the Canal Road Flyover in particular days of a lunar month. The Wan Chai Khalsa Diwan Sikh Temple is the biggest Sikh temple in Hong Kong. The Asia Area Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, along with chapels where multiple congregations meet throughout the week, is on Gloucester Road.

Esquel Group has its head office in 海港中心 (海港中心), Wan Chai. Jademan (now Culturecom) was formerly headquartered in Harbour Centre.

The Star Ferry at Wan Chai Pier the sole ferry operator in the area. Frequent services cross the Victoria Harbour from HKCEC, Wan Chai to the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. In light of more convenient and competitive cross harbour public transportation, the Star Ferry continues to provide an inexpensive option to local commuters. Numerous shipping companies, such as the Anglo Eastern Group, also have their headquarters in Wan Chai.

Tram services run between Shau Kei Wan on the northeastern part of the island and Kennedy Town on the west, with a circular branch serving Happy Valley and the Happy Valley Racecourse. The tram route runs across Johnston Road and Hennessy Road.

Most buses travel in Wan Chai from Admiralty to Causeway Bay via Hennessy Road or, in the opposite direction, Johnston Road and Gloucester Road.

Red taxi (urban) services are available to hire in Wan Chai. These can be pre booked by telephone; however, hailing on the street is a more common way of getting a taxicab. Vehicles that carry a green plate at the front of their cars are able to carry passengers across the Victoria Harbour to Kowloon. There are, however, areas with restricted kerbs and designated pick up and drop off points in the area.

Wan Chai is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 12. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and the following government schools: Hennessy Road Government Primary School and Sir Ellis Kadoorie (Sookunpo) Primary School .